In this article, you will get all the information regarding NYS Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says no need to probe Kathy Hochul pay-to-play
ALBANY — State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said Tuesday that her Democratic supermajority will not investigate Gov. Cathy Hochul — despite mounting evidence of a $637 million pay-to-play scheme in which the governor received more than $300,000 in campaign cash. Tied donors included.
“I take him at his word,” Stewart-Cousins (D-Yonkers) said of the governor’s denials of wrongdoing.
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“We have to remember – I think we all do – where we were when we had to figure out what to do to protect New Yorkers and, you know, getting COVID tests was of paramount importance,” Stewart-Cousins said, echoing Hochul’s previous rationale for the deal.
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The apparent effort to cover up for her fellow Democrat comes after months in which Republicans have called on colleagues to investigate the matter.
“Who do you listen to when you are talking about fraud and corruption?” State Sen. Tom O’Mara (R-Bath) said incredulously in response to Stewart-Cousins.
NJ-based Digital Gadgets received a no-bid contract for COVID-19 rapid tests in late 2021 after its founder, Charlie Tebele, hosted a campaign fundraiser for Hochul, which secured the deal by suspending normal state contracting rules. made possible Coronavirus cases.
Tebele, who has denied wrongdoing, cited conversations with Hochul about “Covid-19 testing” in an email to his administration, highlighting the supplies available before the company received the $338 million payment from the state. was inserted. Buffalo News disclosed Monday,
“I read the governor wants to be able to mail instant covid tests to people [sic] homes,” Tebele wrote. “My company has COVID tests in stock and can work with the state to send them to individual [sic] Home – same day we receive the order,” Tebele wrote.
A spokeswoman has said Hochul has no recollection of ever speaking with Tebele, whose company charges New York nearly twice as much as other states pay on fundraisers.
Assembly Minority Leader William Barkley (R-Fulton), one of the Republican legislators who previously called for an investigation into the matter, told the Post on Monday, “The hearings should have happened earlier this month.”
“With every new detail that is reported, it becomes more and more clear that the governor is not moving forward on an arrangement that is costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. “It’s time for Democrats in the Legislature to do their job and ask some unpleasant questions.”
A spokesman for Assembly Speaker Carl Hastie (D-Bronx) has not responded to repeated inquiries about whether his chamber has any interest in investigating the alleged pay-to-play scheme.
State Attorney General Letitia James, who has investigated price fixing in the past, has also made no move to investigate the matter.
It is unclear whether a prosecutor is eyeing the controversial deal or whether state-level officials such as Inspector General Lucy Lange, whose office investigates malpractices within state agencies, may weigh in.
O’Mara and other Republicans have said someone must find the facts on the curious set of circumstances that led Hochul to strike a $637 million deal for rapid testing.
O’Mara said, “It was either a very poorly negotiated contract – or it was corruption.”
NYS Senate Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins says no need to probe Kathy Hochul pay-to-play
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